IN a new multimedia play set in a city of harmony and love, a magician accidentally builds a wooden robot that cannot feel love - and disrupts tranquility, balance and order. The role of shadow in "City of Magic" is played by award-winning actor Chen Minghao.

The show, which is staged in a shopping mall, combines drama, high-tech magic as well as impressive visual and sound effects.

Chen, now in his 30s from the Chinese National Drama House, has worked with some of China's most famous directors. He has turned his own hand to directing, and he recently spoke with Shanghai Daily.

Feng Jiangzhou, a veteran new media artist and multimedia drama director, created the "City of Magic" stage setting with digital technology and montage. It is being staged in Anting Life Hub in Jiading District. The final performance is tonight.



Q: What's your view of multi-media drama?

A: Attracting an audience with visual and sound effects is the purpose of collaborating with Feng Jiangzhou. Regarding this production, we purely pursue synchronization of performance, sound and visual effects. I consider this combination of form as content itself. Concerning traditional drama, I focus more on acting.



Q: What's it like to collaborate with Feng Jiangzhou?.

A: We have been cooperating for many years since we first collaborated on a stage play directed by Meng Jinghui. Feng is in charge of multi-media production and music and I am the artistic director in charge of actors and performance. I admire Feng's huge inner energy as a musician now working in multi-media. I used to sing some of his songs on stage in other dramas. We have also cooperated in domestic and international drama festivals.



Q: Your play "Ba Ba Ma Ma" took first prize at the first Wuzhen Theater Festival in May in Zhejiang Province. What's your view of the festival?

A: It is a dream. Staying in the beautiful water town of Wuzhen with those artists and the audience was like a fantastic dream. Huang Lei (director, actor and festival cofounder) always said that festival was his "dream" and now I realize it's my dream as well.



Q: What are your criteria in choosing a play?

A: Whether as actor or director, I prefer plays with open endings. In other words, plays that inspire both actors and the audience to feel and think deeply about life. I enjoy plays that inspire me to feel more and don't just tell me what is happening.

I began my career as a professional actor and I have now started to do some directing. To be honest, I prefer acting - concentrating, enjoying the performing itself, in contrast with the director who has to take care of all aspects of a play.



Q: What's it like performing in this space in a shopping mall?

A: It's the first time I have performed in such an open space. Compared with a traditional theater stage, surroundings like this sometimes disturb the actors and disrupt rehearsal. But at the same time, we are inspired by the space - the light, stage and audience members who are customers in the mall. Both the actors and the space are the materials of a show - we respect them and create accordingly. I ask actors for 100 percent concentration during the show.



Q: You are based in Beijing and frequently come to Shanghai. What's the difference in audiences?

A: I will come back to Shanghai soon with Tian Qinxin's "Two Dogs," which is well received in the city. In metropolitan cities like Shanghai and Beijing, there's no big difference between audiences ... the Beijing audience is more straightforward in expressing their views about a show. Shanghainese are softer.

Youth step outside their comfort zone

Lu Feiran

Nathan Roberts from the United Kingdom has been with Raleigh for more than a decade and he has found a new life with the organization.

After participating several foreign expeditions, 38-year-old Roberts is Raleigh International's freelance training consultant.

Before joining Raleigh when he was 26 years old, Roberts worked in the corporate sector.

"I wanted to do something different, something more in tune with my personal values," he said. "I saw the opportunity to go as a volunteer staff member and applied."

In his first expedition in 2001, Roberts was a project manager in a wildlife protection program in a national park in Ghana, West Africa. The team had no technology except a basic radio to communicate with the Raleigh field base. They connected with the natural world, local people and each other.

"It was an amazingly fulfilling experience which made me want to do more with the organization," he said. "I saw elephants on a daily basis, and the experience of being with a group of young people, completely cut off from all that we knew was also amazing."

Roberts remembers bathing in a river in Mole National Park, Ghana, and seeing a black rhino in Namibia. On another expedition he climbed 1,400-meter Mount Kinabalu in Borneo.

Now Roberts is in South China's Guizhou Province on Raleigh China's summer expedition. He has visited a festival and was treated as a VIP in a local welcome ceremony.

"The genuine welcome and hospitality will stay with me forever," he said.

Roberts said Chinese young people participating in the expedition generally have a very strong work ethic. They are committed to Raleigh and their studies, and work very hard to succeed.

"Some feel enormous pressure to be 'successful,' however, many I spoke to did not really know what that would look like," he said.

Roberts cited the example of a young girl who found that Raleigh's team building games had greatly helped her feel more confident and trust others. She told him she used to have problems trusting people, which caused difficulties in life and made it hard to form the friendships that she wanted.

During the game, she had to trust her teammates and discovered that she could trust others.

The great value of Raleigh experiences is challenging people to leave their comfort zones and discover more about who they truly are and what they are capable of being, Roberts said.

"For some, leaving their comfort may occur the moment they surrender their mobile phone for four weeks! For others it may be completing the trekking or abseil. For some others, it might be expressing their emotions or running a sports day for the children in a village where we are working."

When people achieve things they had not thought possible, it creates a spark of possibility that maybe their dreams, either for themselves or wider society, might be possible after all, he said. Young people also learn leadership and teamwork skills that serve them in whatever life path they choose.

Editor's Note:

In this regular column, Shanghai Daily will feature a volunteer or staff member of nonprofit Raleigh International in Shanghai. Established in 1978 by Britain's Prince Charles, the organization encourages youth to explore the world, support sustainable development and work in a team to make a difference. The organization is a strategic partner of Shanghai Daily.